Lubricating apparatus.



G. C. HESTER.

LUBRICATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. I9, 1911.

1,280,222.. Patented Oct. 1, 1918.

hllili GEORGE C. HESTER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

LUBRICATING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 1, 1918.

Application filed January 19, 1917. Serial No. 143,347.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE C. HESTER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook, and in the State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Lubricating Apparatus, and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The lubricating oil for the cylinders and other parts of motors or engines of automobiles is supplied to the crank case, or engine pan. It-is of great importance to maintain the supply of oil at a certain level. Too little oil is dangerous because of injury to the parts failing to secure adequate lubrication. Too much oil is bad in that it impairs the efliciency of the motor, as by causmg carbon deposits on the piston heads and spark plugs. In ordinary practice the maintenance of the necessary roper level of oil depends upon personal 0 servation and attention for the discovery of the diminished supply and its replenishing, as by pouring oil through the breather pipe, or filling tube and through neglect, or inattention, or heedlessness in pouring the oil into the filling tube, the replenishing may not be attende to in time with the result of overheating of the engine parts, and when the replenishing is done it may be heedlessly done so as to supply an oversupply and incidentally by the spilling of the oil in hand pouring waste occurs. Generally stated, the object of my invention is to provide automatic means for maintaining the oil supply at the proper level to the end that injury to the engine may be avoided and loss, or waste eliminated, and a further object of the invention is to achieve the end stated by simple and reliable operating mechanism, and for the achievement of my object my invention consists in the lubricating apparatus constructed as hereinafter specified and claimed.

In the drawings The figure is a view in vertical section of one form of apparatus embodying my invention shown as applied to an automobile engine, a portion of which only is shown, and in which figure the dash, or instrument board of the car is illustrated to show the application of the signal devices which I consider desirable to employ.

Referring to the drawing, 12 designates a portion of the oil pan or crank casing of ordmary construction of the motor or engine of an automobile. In one of the side walls of the oil pan, or case, and a short d stance from the bottom thereof, I proylde a tapped, or threaded hole 13 which is the only change, or alteration necessary for the application, or employment of my invention, so that my invention may thus be employed with cars already built and in use. Screwed into such hole and extending partially into the case and partially out of the same, is a nipple l-t. Said nipple at its outer end has a threaded connection with the interior of a float chamber 15, which is also in communication by means of a pipe 16, and a float valve controlled passage, with an oil reservoir (not shown) mounted in some convenient place upon the car body. Said reservoir may be so placed as to afford a gravity feed, or a pressure, or force feed may be employed, it being immaterial to my invention how the oil is delivered from the reservoir through the pipe 16 to the float chamber,the only requisite being that there shall be such delivery. The pipe 16 at its end is screwed into a threaded hole in the side wall of the chamber 15 at the bottom, from which hole a passage 17 leads to a chamber 18 depending from or being a prolongation of the float chamber 15 between the top of which chamber 18 and the bottom of the float chamber is a wall, or diaphragm 19 having a port or passage 20 through which oil may flow from the chamber 18 up into the float chamber, and which port, or passage 20 has a valve seat 21 for a valve 22 situated in the chamber 18 and adapted, according to its vertical position to shut off, or permit the flow of oil from the chamber 18 into the float chamber 15. Said valve engages its seat and thus cuts ofi the flow of oil from the chamber 18 into the float chamber when the desired level of oil in the crank case, or engine pan exists and the valve instantly moves from its seat and opens the port when the oil level lowers. Thus with the parts in proper working condition, the desired oil level is never exceeded, and if it lessens the supply to the crank case is instantly and automatically provided. The valve 22 is attached to the lower end of a Vertical stem 23 which passes upward ;into the float chamber, being guided by spiders 24 at the top and bottom of the float chamber, respectively, which are provlded with guide holes for the stem and fixedly secured to said stem is a float 25 which acts to move and hold the valve to its seat when the proper level of oil is establ shed and which moves the valve from its seat upon the lowering of such level.

Of course, unforeseen accidents may prevent seating of the valve, as, for example, the lodgment of a particle of grit between the valve and its seat, and in such case the proper oil level would be exceeded. On the other hand there might be a failure to supply oil from the reservoir, due, for example, to the emptying of the reservoir. It 1s, therefore, desirable by automatic means to signal, or give notice of the existence of either an excessive supply of oil to the crank case, or to a failure of supply thereto.- I accordingly provide signaling means wh1ch preferably are electrical and which include electric signaling devices, such as lamps of different color, which are, respectively, automatically lighted when either of the abnormal conditions just described exist, and as well when the conditions are normal.

most position, at'which time said valve also touches a spring contact finger 35 electrically connected with the bottom wall of the valve chamber 18 and thus the circuit be closed through the red light 27. In the case of the blue light there is an insulated binding post 36 secured to the top wall of the float chamber to which on the outside is connected one terminal of the blue lamp and on the inside of the float chamber is a spring contact finger 37, and a similar spring contact finger 38 is electrically connected with the inner side of the float chamber top and the circuit is closed between said spring contacts 37 and 38 when they are touched by a float 39 loosely mounted upon the valve stem 23, above the float 25, so that it may slide freely up and down on said valve stem independently of the float 25. Thus when through the failure of the valve 22 properly to seat oil continues to flow into the float chamber and the crank case and it reaches a level which will lift the loose float 39, the latter will be caused to close the circuit through the blue lamp. To show the significance of the various lights, adjacent each lamp may be a, suitable word, such as the word Normal adjacent the white lamp; the word Flooding adjacent the blue lamp Thus a circuit is automatically closed and the word .Empty adjacent the red through say a blue light 26, when the valve fails to seat and there is an excessive supply of oil a circuit is closed through a red light 27 when there is a failure to supply oil; and a circuit is closed through a white light 28 when the conditions are normal. The three lamps 26, 27 and 28 are mounted on the instrument board of the car, and in order that one switch 29 may control all three lamps, I place such switch on the positive side thereof, or in the connection leading to the positive pole of the battery whose negative pole, as in ordinary automobile equipment is grounded to the car frame. Hence, the float chamber 15 and parts connected therewith may form a portion of the circuit for each of the three lamps, the connection with which on the negative side is made by independent wires which lead, respectively, to insulated binding posts. vThus secured to .the top wall of the float chamber 15 is a binding post 30 with which one terminal of the white light Wire is connected, and which binding post inside the chamber has a spring contact 31 adapted under normal conditions to be touched by the upper end of the valve stem 23 and thereby the circuit closed through the white lamp. For the red lamp a binding post 32? is secured to but insulated from the bottom head of the valve chamber 18, to which on the outside is attached one terminal of the red lamp wire, while on the inside of said chamber 18 there is a spring contact finger 32 adapted to be touched by the valve 22 when in its lowerlamp. A suflicient space is always maintained between the two floats 25 and 39 so that the possibility of the two sticking together will be prevented, and such space may readily be preserved by several pointed projections 40 on say the top of the float 23 upon whose apexes the bottom of the float 39 rests when the float 39 is not buoyed up by oil.

The end of the nipple 14 inside the oil pan, or crank case, is solid, or imperforate, and communication between the interior of the nipple and said case is aflorded by lateral, or side holes 41 which extend at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the nipple, or vertically, and thus the danger of agitation of the body of oil within the float chamber 15 avoided which would exist if the discharge from the nipple into the gear case should be in direct line with. the longitudinal bore of the nipple. In passing over roughroa'ds the large volume of oil in the gear case is greatly agitated and it is desirable to prevent its agitation being communicated to the oil in t e float chamber, or result in such variationof the level of the oil in the float chamber as might result in the opening of the valve 22 and the influx of oil into the gear case under conditions when the quantity therein was the desired amount.

As will be evident to those skilled in the art, the principles of my invention may be embodied in an apparatus, or mechanism diflering in construction and arrangement of parts from what is illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the specification, and it is, therefore, to be understood that I do not limit myself to the embodiment of my invention only in the form herein shown and described.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is- 1. The combination of an oil holder from. which oil is supplied to parts to be lubricated, means to supply oil thereto comprising a valve controlled passage, a float operatively connected with said valve and subjected to the action of oil passing through said passage, a signal, and signal-operating means including a second float also subjected to the action of the oil flowing through said passage, said second float nor mally moving with the first float and the valve, but moving in one direction independent thereof when the valve fails to seat.

2. The combination of an oil holder from which oil is to be supplied to parts to be lubricated, means to supply oil thereto comprising a valve controlled passage, a valve, a float connected with the valve and moving therewith in both directions, a second float resting upon the first float, but movable upwardly independent thereof, both of said floats being subjected to the action of oil passing through the valve controlled passage, and a signal controlled by said second float.

3. The combination of an oil receptacle in which it is desired to maintain a certain level of oil, means for suppl ing oil thereto including a float chamber aving a valve controlled passage, a valve, a float connected with said valve. and a signal in a circuit controlled by said valve when moving in the direction away from its seat, said circuit including a pair of stationary contacts, and the valve which directly engages said stationary contacts.

4. The combination of an oil receptacle in which it is desired to maintain a certain level of oil, means for supplying oil thereto including a float chamber having a valve controlled passage, a valve, a float connected with said valve, a second float in said float chamber, a signal, and signal "operating means actuated by said second float.

5. The combination of an oil receptacle in which it is desired to maintain a certain level of oil, means for supplying oil thereto including a float'chamber having a valve controlled passage, a valve, a float connected with said valve, and a nipple extending from said float chamber into said receptacle having its discharge orifice leading laterally into said receptacle.

6. The combination of an oil receptacle in which it is desired to maintain a certain level of oil, means for automatically controlling the supply of oil thereto, including a chamber, and a pamage leading therefrom to said receptacle, and means for controlling back flow from said receptacle into said chamber.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand.

GEORGE G. HESTER. 

